Drug delivery devices are commonly used to hold and deliver prescribed quantities of medication to a patient. Exemplary drug delivery devices include, but are not limited to syringes, oral syringes, vials and other capped containers that function to hold and deliver a prescribed and precise amount of liquid medication to a patient.
Once filled with a liquid medication and capped, it is important that the drug delivery device be provided to a patient care site for administration to the intended patient with the integrity of the contents thereof uncompromised. Further, in the event that the drug delivery device is not used at a patient care site, it may be important that the drug delivery device be returned (e.g., to a pharmacy) so that the contents thereof may be handled in an appropriate manner. Such considerations are particularly important when certain medical liquids, such as narcotic drugs, are being handled.
In this regard, numerous approaches have been proposed for indicating when a drug delivery device has been tampered with prior to or otherwise apart from intended patient administration. One approach that has been proposed for use in conjunction with syringes is a break-away, colored sleeve that caps a syringe. The colored sleeves may be divided and arranged in a tray prior to being mated with syringes such that a user may cap the syringe directly by inserting the end of the syringe to be capped into one selected colored sleeve that is in the tray, resulting in the colored cap being securely attached to the end. If the syringe is tampered with and the contents are accessed through the capped end, the colored sleeve will be broken, thereby providing a visual indicator that the syringe has been tampered with. In another approach, an open end of a syringe may be capped with a shell that is constructed such that tampering with the syringe results in the shell being broken-away in a manner that provides a visual indicator that the syringe has been tampered with.
In each of the noted approaches, as well as additional approaches that have been proposed, visual indications are relied upon to identify the occurrence of tampering. In such approaches, recapping of a tampered syringe is not restricted, only indicated upon visual inspection.